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For years, scientists exploring the Earth’s moon have benefitted from detailed, three-dimensional views of the lunar landscape. Now, it’s easier than ever for anyone to see those same 3D pictures. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a robotic spacecraft that circles…

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt was the last person to step down onto the Moon. He was also the only professional geologist to work on the lunar surface, which he did during the Apollo 17 expedition to the Taurus-Littrow Valley. The Moon’s…

More than 50 years of planetary exploration have yielded a rich harvest of data, including many volumes of pictures. These images have revealed the faces of nearly all the nearby worlds, which have turned out to be both forboding and…

The first time many people saw the Moon up close was during a remarkable television event: millions watched live as an American spacecraft, the last of its kind, fell toward certain destruction on the lunar surface.

This entry originally appeared as a guest post on The Planetary Society site. China’s first lunar lander, which also happens to be humankind’s first in nearly four decades, is on its way to the Moon. The Chang’e 3 spacecraft departed…